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History of Pakistan Air Force

Muradk

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ALL SIXTY-FOUR SABRES UP IN AIR​


1956 onwards the date of the ‘Pakistan Day’ annual celebration was changed from august 14 to March 23rd. By that date in the year 1957, the PAF was a little beyond halfway into its conversion onto the newly acquired sabers, and was in the possession of 64 of these fighters out of an expected total off 100. No14 squadron was the last to have received these aircrafts, hardly 4 months before the grand activity was planned with No5 and No11 having received the Sabers earlier, No9 was the only one left with the Furies up North to attend to the PAF’s watch and ward commitments in Waziristan for which the Sabers were not considered suitable. Till then the conversion programme had produced about 60 pilots whose experience on the type ranged from couple of hundred hours to ten hours or less. Would the PAF consider a dramatic public introduction of its latest weapon system by staging a ‘Saber only’ fly-past on the 23rd answered to that was yes all 64 Sabers.

Every thing was hurried and put together to make 64 pilots with a couple of reserves by D-day; the lowest experience on that day was under 2 hours of flying experience. No 14 was only 4 months old and had the least experience pilots at that time, And to top it all there were no external tanks.

Therefore flying around at low level on internal fuel only, there was a little over 30 min in which to take 64 aircraft off the ground, form them up, fly them past and land them back.
On D-day with the engineers producing almost a miracle by lining up 100% serviceability, the pilots took off over the staged a flawless sequence that sent 16 four-ships screaming past the saluting dais at Karachi polo ground in a breathtaking spectacle. But then 64 fuel starved jet fighter on the single Mauripur Runway, one exited youngster misjudged his flare out (A manoeuvre preformed during the landing phase, prior to touch down, to break the glide of the aircraft and make its flight parallel to the runway).

And crash landed on the runway and blocked the runway fair and square. Whereuopn Karachi civil airport next door was treated to a rear spectacle as swarms of sabers made a beeline for it, frantically jockeying for position in the landing stream because no one had the fuel to go around. The risk that was taken must have been the dying echoes of an era gone by, but the resulting achievement was spectacular to say the least and another thing which I should mention and will put the photos as well my father was Lt Col at that time and was leading the parade and that was the day I decided to become a fighter pilot.

:pakistan:

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Great story sir. Inspiration and motivation is all what makes us successful.

I hope this story too inspired many young lads around here.
 
LEADING THE FIRST PLANE TO PAKISTAN​



With the World War coming to an end The young Flying Officer Khyber Khan came back from Burma from where he did countless mission over Japan, Ever more radiant and confident with his resent war experience he was promoted to Flt Lt. On August 14th ,1947 Pakistan came into existence. Soon thereafter the assets were distributed between the 2 newly born Air Forces of Pakistan and India. In addition to some other equipment
6 Harvard aircraft were also allotted out to RPAF. At that time these aircrafts were positioned at Ambala and had to be flown across to Pakistan. This first contingent consisting of 6 Harvard-2B trainers arrived in Pakistan on September 6th, 1947. The leader of this six-ship was none other than Khyber Kahn, and included Aziz Ahmed Siddiqui, Rahim Khan, Zafar Chaudhry and 2 cadet pilots. The very next day the planes were painted with newly designed Pakistan markings, which swept a thrill through Risalpur, with everyone rushing to have himself photographed next to the crescent and the star.
FIRST TRANING SORTIE

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Royal Pakistan Air Force was born on August 14th, 1947. The very next day, i.e. on August 15th RPAF Flying Training School was formed at Risalpur. Initially 3 small training units were established; the Elementary Flying Training Squadron with 4 Tiger Moths, an Advanced Flying Training Squadron with 4 Harvard 2Bs and a flight of Harvard 2C for Squadron training. Flt Lt Khyber Khan was immediately posted to the school, Were he made history by flying the First Training Sortie on September 22, 1947, merely 5 weeks after the establishment of the school.
After the initial flying on DH-82 Tiger Moth further flying training continued at the Advanced Flying Training Squadron on the famous T-6G Harvard, Which has been described as one of the best trainers ever built. Flt Lt Khyber Khan was one of the 3 Flying Instructors who formed the Harvard flight; the other 2 were Zafar A Chaudhry and Rahim Khan.

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KHYBER KHAN- THE CONQUEROR OF SKARDU​


The next milestone in Khyber Khan’s life as a Air warrior came in the shape of the unforgettable and daring exploit of transporting a mortar gun in the rear seat of a
T-6 Harvard aircraft to Gilgit, Which was instrumental in the capture of Skardu. Soon after independence on October 26th, 1947 the Hindu Maharaja of Kashmir declared accession of the Muslim majority state to India, in complete disregard of the principle enunciate in the document concerning partition. He invited Indian Military help and on October 27, Indian forces moved into the state, Thus exposing a pre-conceived plan for the occupation of Kashmir. No sooner did the news of the Maharaja’s accession spread that the people of Poonch and Mirpure district formed the Azad Kashmir Government at Muzaffarabad.
During the first Indo-Pak was of 1948, forward elements of Azad Kashmir forces had by-passed Skardu in pursuit of the Indian units fleeing south towards Kashmir. However a Dogra battalion entrenched within kharphocho Fort posed a serious threat in the rear of the advancing column and had to be removed in order to secure the lines of communication. Due to the location of the fort, a direst frontal assault was deemed extremely hazardous and the Azad Kashmir forces did not posses any suitable weapon with which to engage the entrenched Dogras. There as no artillery support and air strike was not advisable. Lest it led to an all-out war against the numerically far superior RIAF. It was finally decided that a mortar gun capable of firing a high trajectory projectile could possibly be the only weapon that could effectively target the fort. Thus efforts were commenced to make one available to the Azad Kashmir forces. Till the early 1950s, the only access to this part of the country was an unreliable mule track, which remained blocked for most of the year due to land slides and snow. The present runway at Gilgit and Skardu had not been built. The first 2 attempts to deliver a mortar gun having failed, It was decided to airlift one into Gilgit. The honor of being picked up for this vital mission went to Flt Lt Khyber Khan who was them commanding the Advanced Flying School at Risalpur. He was aware that the mission was very dangerous and hazardous because the enemy was on RED Alert and he had to be extra cautious. In order to accommodate the unwieldy barrel of the mortar cannon the rear canopy of the T-6G Harvard was removed and the weapon was strapped to the seat. The rear cockpit instrument panel was also removed to make more space and its barrel was placed in a tilted position in a manner that it lay only a few inches behind the head of the pilot.
Flight Lieutenant Khyber Khan took off from Risalpur in the Peshawar Valley in the afternoon of April 14th, 1948. Even at 12 thousand feet the flight was bumpy, and the farther he flew the higher the mountains rose, crowding him on both sides in this narrowing valley below. Halfway the sky was getting darker and T-6 could not climb over such a mountains, suddenly the aircraft jolted severely causing the pilot some alarm, Survival was at stake in case of engine failure or an intensive downdraft at this low
height. And what id the barrel got loose? Instinctively Khyber silently prayed and by the Grace of God thing started to look better the weather got good, but this relief was short lived because moments later he saw 2 objects high above Chilas ahead of him. These had to be Indian Tempest fighting patrolling west of Nanga Parbat. The T-6G swooped down to water level till a turn in the river shielded it from enemy’s view. Still keeping low and watchful for any lurking intruders above, He turned west towards the Gilgit as he approached the destination, Clouds began to gather again and he realized it would be soon too dark and better land soon. The Gilgit scouts had fire as a signal for him and a rugged runway was made which was sandy and a 3 pointer landing was made the plane just stopped close to the mountain base.
The Militia and the Scouts has been waiting anxiously for this special mission. They received the aircraft with jubilation and loud cheers of Allah - o- Akbar under the pilot’s supervision the mortar was quickly taken out and placed near a waiting camel. The men them gathered large stones and made a wall around the plane and camouflaged it from the top. While Khyber Khan was provided the Scouts commandant’s own Charger Horse to take him to the camp, a full platoon was decided to mount guard for the night at the field. Occasionally a sentry would stand looking intently at the T-6G and then smile affectionately patting its wings.
Indian fighter came the next morning to strafe the side, but the pilot was by then speeding home in hid T-6G. And in the mounted column a Bactrian camel plodded along the bank of the Indus river carring the heavy mortar cannon over a rocky track towards distant Sakdu, to the vicinity of the enemy help Kharphocho Fort. 3 days later the mortar fired thrice and the Dogras hastily raised the white flag of surrender over the rampart of Kharphocho, Skardu had fallen. Flt Lt Khyber khan got the message from the commandant of the liberation forces telling him that they conquered Skardu



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Its good to repeat and revise the great events in the history of PAF but they are already known. May be its good for those who dont know anything.

But it would be worthwhile to dig a bit deeper and think on some issues which remain shrouded in mystery. The questions that must be answered so that they are not repeated in the future.

Personally I want to know that why Mirages were not used in air combat in 1971. I dont know of any Mirage pilot who has ever shot down a fighter jet, in 1971 (or in 1979-1988 Afghan war).

Israeli AF wrecked havoc in Middle East with Mirages. They fought four arab air forces with Mirages and defeated them, especially in 1967 war.

Israeli AF liked Mirage so much they made their own version of it, Kfir. The main arab victims were Mig-21s and Su-7s and even Jordanian Hunters, the same that Indian AF had. But we dont see any kills by Mirages of PAF.

This is a very serious issue. The top scoring jet ace of the world, Giora Epstein, is an Israeli AF pilot, who made all his 17 kills in Mirage / Kfir.

We know that M M M Alam had transitioned to Mirage after the 1965 war. We dont know any of his mission in 1971. He was evidently not allowed to fly. We would like to know the reason.....He was even not allowed to fly after 17 Sept 1965 (if I remember well), in the mid of the war.

Had he been allowed to fly, he would have used the Mirage to annihilate the opposition in 1971. Even if Alam was allowed to continue till 23 Sept 1965, it is strongly likely that he would have been the leading jet ace of the world now.

It should be remembered that in every war, we need some hot shot pilots to set the tone in the initial clash. Its like in the old times, when before the start of the formal battle,the top warriors of both sides used to do a duel and it carried enormous importance for the rest of the troops.

In 1965, Imtiaz Bhatti+Rafiqui destroyed 4 vampires on the 1st sept 1965. This caused 120 Vampires to be grounded. Although Vampire was outdated and old aircraft as compared to Sabre, it could be used in air-to-ground and maritime missions. Then Alam sent a wave of terror by shooting 5 aircraft in one mission.

No such examples were set up in 1971. No ace in 1971.

Perhaps Mirages were deliberately instructed not to do air combat, so that (perhaps) the attack from West Pakistan remains weak and Indian Forces remain busy on the Eastern front to finish the job (perhaps).

Other idea which is not very strong is that PAF was not skilled in energy fight and as Sabre was an "angles fighter", the majority was unfamiliar to energy fight. This idea is weak, because we had F-104s that were energy fighters and this concept was not unfamiliar to them.

In this regard, we the need the guidance of our seasoned experts on this forum.
 
Air Commodore (Retd) M Kaiser Tufail has written a very balanced and objective book on the Great Air Battles of PAF. it has a dozen narrations of PAF Airwar Heroes. its a good read.
AC Kaiser was my class-mate at St'Marys - Pindi in the early 70's.
 
Its good to repeat and revise the great events in the history of PAF but they are already known. May be its good for those who dont know anything.

But it would be worthwhile to dig a bit deeper and think on some issues which remain shrouded in mystery. The questions that must be answered so that they are not repeated in the future.

Personally I want to know that why Mirages were not used in air combat in 1971. I dont know of any Mirage pilot who has ever shot down a fighter jet, in 1971 (or in 1979-1988 Afghan war).

Israeli AF wrecked havoc in Middle East with Mirages. They fought four arab air forces with Mirages and defeated them, especially in 1967 war.

Israeli AF liked Mirage so much they made their own version of it, Kfir. The main arab victims were Mig-21s and Su-7s and even Jordanian Hunters, the same that Indian AF had. But we dont see any kills by Mirages of PAF.

This is a very serious issue. The top scoring jet ace of the world, Giora Epstein, is an Israeli AF pilot, who made all his 17 kills in Mirage / Kfir.

We know that M M M Alam had transitioned to Mirage after the 1965 war. We dont know any of his mission in 1971. He was evidently not allowed to fly. We would like to know the reason.....He was even not allowed to fly after 17 Sept 1965 (if I remember well), in the mid of the war.

Had he been allowed to fly, he would have used the Mirage to annihilate the opposition in 1971. Even if Alam was allowed to continue till 23 Sept 1965, it is strongly likely that he would have been the leading jet ace of the world now.

It should be remembered that in every war, we need some hot shot pilots to set the tone in the initial clash. Its like in the old times, when before the start of the formal battle,the top warriors of both sides used to do a duel and it carried enormous importance for the rest of the troops.

In 1965, Imtiaz Bhatti+Rafiqui destroyed 4 vampires on the 1st sept 1965. This caused 120 Vampires to be grounded. Although Vampire was outdated and old aircraft as compared to Sabre, it could be used in air-to-ground and maritime missions. Then Alam sent a wave of terror by shooting 5 aircraft in one mission.

No such examples were set up in 1971. No ace in 1971.

Perhaps Mirages were deliberately instructed not to do air combat, so that (perhaps) the attack from West Pakistan remains weak and Indian Forces remain busy on the Eastern front to finish the job (perhaps).

Other idea which is not very strong is that PAF was not skilled in energy fight and as Sabre was an "angles fighter", the majority was unfamiliar to energy fight. This idea is weak, because we had F-104s that were energy fighters and this concept was not unfamiliar to them.

In this regard, we the need the guidance of our seasoned experts on this forum.


In 1971 war, why Mirages weren’t use in Air superiority role?? Because we didn’t need to…Remember that PAF had ample amount of war proven F-86s and good pool of Air superiority fighter pilots. Don’t forget that F-6s were also employed in air combat role, so there was no need to employ Mirages in that role too. However, Mirages flew lots of surface attack (strikes, interdiction etc) missions and Photo Recce and proved successful in thse roles.

MM Alam and many other Bengali pilots weren’t allowed to fly in 71 because of obvious reasons. Was it a wise decision? Well its definitely debateable and still haunts the minds of many young pilots today …Unlike 65, many aspects of 71 war still remain under the carpet and true picture can only be revealed by the people who participated in it..

You also mentioned something about ‘energy manoeuvrability ‘and said that PAF pilots weren’t good in it…..WOW…Just to put you in picture that air combat training in PAF starts with energy manoeuvring and finishes at energy manoeuvring…..although employment of BVR tactics has reduced the demand for energy fighting but it will never go away and till the time there is a bleakest chance of close quarter air combat, the energy manoeuvring will stay in all fighter training curriculum’s……….Energy manoeuvrability has been taught and practiced by every PAF fighter pilot, and its results can been seen from the very first kill of Indian Canberra by Flying Officer Younus ( 1959 Eid Day ) to the last kill by F-16 of Afghani SU-22 ( 1988 near Thal) by Flt Lt Khalid Mahmood. So please dont doubt this aspect...:enjoy:
 
I will say it once and this is for all the members and guests who read our forum. MM Alam was Bihari not bangali. Why he did'nt fly he was to valueable to loose. Could you imagine MM getting shotdown and in the hands of the Indians. That is why we needed his experties in AHQ at that time. And MM did fly after the war well he did fly for some other countries but that is all I can say.
 
I will say it once and this is for all the members and guests who read our forum. MM Alam was Bihari not bangali. Why he did'nt fly he was to valueable to loose. Could you imagine MM getting shotdown and in the hands of the Indians. That is why we needed his experties in AHQ at that time. And MM did fly after the war well he did fly for some other countries but that is all I can say.

Even in airforce, may be many people assume him to be a Bengali because he was born in Calcutta and raised in East Pakistan. …..I can imagine that after achieving such a feat in 65, he must be pretty frustrated sitting in AHQ during 71 war…:tsk:
 
Even in airforce, may be many people assume him to be a Bengali because he was born in Calcutta and raised in East Pakistan. …..I can imagine that after achieving such a feat in 65, he must be pretty frustrated sitting in AHQ during 71 war…:tsk:

he gave me my Airforce name Tiger , in 71 he did fly but was not allowed to go into combat. I was in 26 Sqd weather was bad and could'nt land in Peshawar so I deverted to kamra from there I was ordered to goto Sargodha had to pick some papers which were very important. Luckly bumped into MM . SO he says to me hi come on let me teach you how to fly and I said,I dont understand he says best of three and I said ok lets go. Before we got into the planes I said no we will change planes you will fly my plane serial 001 and I will fly yours serial 026. The whole base was betting against me and I was 5 to 1 , see they knew he couldn;t go into combat and will really kick my Butt to show how good he is. Before I take off ATC Flt lt sheeren wife of Flt lt Ansari tells me Bahi the bet is 5 to 1, that made me very nervous, so we took off and the battle started we had a time limit for every one 6 min for 1 dog fight. In all 3 dog fights I could not shoot him down and he could not shoot me down and when we landed he said you are a tiger no doubt. We took some photos and I still have his photo with his saber saying ( I dont drink any more signed MM ALAM).
Normally in state of war you put your best men to fight but I never understood nor did he till today that why cound'nt he go into combat with his experience, I think Top Brass thought that if he gets shot down it would look bad for PAF that he is in the hands of Indians. Specially when Indians knew that 026 will be MM alam it would have been a trophy for the IAF to have him in shakles and put his photo all over the news papers.
 
Normally in state of war you put your best men to fight but I never understood nor did he till today that why cound'nt he go into combat with his experience, I think Top Brass thought that if he gets shot down it would look bad for PAF that he is in the hands of Indians. Specially when Indians knew that 026 will be MM alam it would have been a trophy for the IAF to have him in shakles and put his photo all over the news papers.

Anyone unfortunate can become a POW, and even though it would have been a trophy for the indians, there was nothing pakistanies would have felt ashamed off or something which could effect the morale of PAF. He was protecting his country and if he got shot down or got killed, it was in the line of duty and for his country, i think the top brass was a sole loser, and this loser mentality was the main reason we lost the war. Such a top notch pilot was not allowed to fly sorties fearing he could get caught, my god what would have happened if india would have decided to attack west pakistan as well.:tsk:
 
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